PROGRESS

01.06.12

U.S. Broadens Definition of Rape

It's the first major revision to the definition of rape in more than 80 years. The Obama administration on Friday broadened the parameters of the crime—which had been undercounted for decades—to include more forms of sexual assaults. It now includes men as victims, oral or anal sex, and attacks which a victim cannot give consent because of the influence of drugs or alcohol, is under the age of consent, or mentally or physically incapable. Since 1927, forcible rape was defined as the carnal knowledge of a woman, forcibly and against her will, which only included penetration of a woman's vagina but excluded oral or anal penetration—and the rape of men.